In a reversal of trend, the Indian exporters plan large scale ferrying of the premium aquatic food, shrimp to China as the demand shoots up driven by the consumption in the neighbouring country. China will be the next new market for the Indian shrimp exporters, say leading industry players.

"China, which traditionally has been the large producer of shrimps, is becoming the world's largest consumer of this premium aquatic food. In the near future, India will see China as the biggest market," says Kamlesh Gupta, Chairman, WestCoast Group, one of the leading seafood exporters in the country.

According to a report by Globefish, a division of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN, India and Chile are expected to be the standout performers in 2017. Bumper harvests of aquacultured vannamei shrimp is the main factor behind this status, said the report.

At present, the top markets for seafood exports from India are the US, Europe, Japan, China and South East Asia. Frozen shrimp contributes to 38.28 per cent share in quantity and 64.50 per cent in value. India has set a target of earning $15.28 billion (Rs 1 lakh crore) from its shrimp exports by 2022. In the last financial year, the country earned $5.78 billion (compared to $4.69 billion in the previous year) from exporting 1.13 million tone of seafood. India became the largest shrimps exporter in the world with 438,500 tone in 2016, a y-o-y growth of 14.5 per cent.

Gupta says, India with its superior quality production and processing of shrimp attracts buyers from the US and Japan. As per an earlier FAO report, India became the largest shrimps exporter in the world with 438,500 tone in 2016, a y-o-y growth of 14.5 per cent. The top five shrimp exporters to the international market in 2016 were India, Vietnam, Ecuador, Indonesia and Thailand.